From the Ashes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Roanoke Colony

White's paintings have been hailed as "the most accurate visual record of the New World by an artist of his generation" (Michael G. Moran, "Encyclopedia Virginia" https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/White_John_d_1593). "Indians Round a Fire", is a watercolor depicting ten Indians in a circle around a smoking bonfire. Some are holding shaking gourds and pumpkin rattles. It is unclear if this is merely a conversation being indulged in, or the prelude to either prayer or a ceremony. This painting, like White's others from that period, were important in providing solid detail of the way of life and culture of the Secotan (North Carolina) Indians. Other works, as an example, showed a warrior daubed in paint, a couple on a mat enjoying a meal, and four men laboring over the construction of a canoe. His ability to capture their appearance, certain gestures, and their postures was uncanny. This was never more evident than when a parcel of his works were published as etchings by Theodor de Bry. De Bry's efforts would give the Indians a distinct European look.

White, himself, has an interesting background. He was, at one point, the governor of the "Lost Colony" but not a very popular one. His daughter was Elinor White Dare, who gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in America. Due to his poor popularity, White agreed to be the one to sail back to England to campaign for the colony to be moved to a new location and return with some much-needed supplies. His return, however, was delayed by a little scuffle the English were having with the Spanish Armada and, by the time he did get back (1590), his daughter, grand-daughter, and the rest of the colony had disappeared. White would pass away three years later.

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Answer: Charles DeWolf Brownell

Charles DeWolf Brownell was educated as a lawyer, a profession he pursued for 10 years until ill health forced him to seek less stressful employment. Landscape painter Henry Bryant encouraged him to pursue painting, and he became a very accomplished landscape and nature artist.

Although most noted for his landscape paintings, most notably of Cuba, Brownell also had a keen interest in American revolutionary themes. His painting of the "Burning of the Gaspee" some 100 years after the event is a prime example of this. The Gaspee was a British customs ship that Rhode Island colonists attacked and sank when it ran aground in shallow water in 1772. The ship was burned to the waterline and began a series of events that would eventually lead to the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the American Revolution.

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Answer: False

In 1944, Mr. Drysdale was commissioned to record the effects of the Great Drought the country was enduring. Part of this collection, a painting called "Bush Fire", depicts the aftermath of a bushfire. All that is left of a house after it has been razed by fire is a brick chimney and a few of pieces of rusted roofing iron. This image retold the horror of a bushfire (and it did fit well with his desolation outback style) far better than other Australian renowned artists who also painted bushfires such as Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams, Sydney Nolan, and Clifton Pugh.

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Answer: Jerusalem

Completed between 1847 and 1849, this painting is considered one of the most important works of the Judeo-Christian era. It portrays the climax of the Jewish Revolt that commenced in AD 66 and has been praised for the accuracy, detail, and manner it depicts the dying moments of the great city. The Times of London claimed the huge seven foot by twelve foot work in oil as a sensation, "the work of a nation".

Sadly, the original work disappeared in 1852; however, the Belgian lithographer Louis Haghe, one of the finest exponents of this art, had faithfully created prints of the work in 1850. Robert E. Browning would discover a damaged copy of one of these prints in the storeroom of a Tennessee antique shop in 1985 and, through the use of modern technology and specialists in the field, was able to bring a recreation of the work to life some twelve years later.

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Answer: Lieve Verschuier

The painting by Lieve Verschuier is currently held in the Museum of Fine Arts (Szepmuveszeti) Budapest, Hungary. It depicts many small craft on the Thames filled with people fleeing with nothing but their lives. The fire of 1666 raged for several days and consumed much of the city of London, including remnants of Roman sites there.

Verschuier was better known for his maritime paintings. Of the others listed Monet was not Dutch, and Van Gogh and Buys were not in the correct time-period for the fire.

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Answer: Bombardment of Algiers

Thomas Luny did several paintings that were simply titled "Bombardment of Algiers". They depict the naval battle between the Anglo-Dutch fleet and Algiers. The battle was a bid to end slavery practices by the Dey of Algiers and to free several hundred Christian slaves.

Each painting Luny did of the bombardment is different, but they share similar features. Battleships from the Anglo-Dutch fleet are in the middle ground while the harbour is ablaze in the back. Smoke billows upwards from the inferno. The only source of light in the painting is from the fire, while dark night surrounds the scene.

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Answer: Moses

Domenico Zampieri's "Landscape with Moses and the Burning Bush" is an oil on copper work and was completed sometime between 1610 and 1616. Despite Moses confronting the burning bush on Horeb, the mountain of God, Zampieri depicts him on flat land with a city in the background that a number of scholars believe to be Egypt. The logic of this is that it signifies God recruiting Moses to lead his people out of that city. In the background there are sheep that have been penned in. Scholars believe the sheep represent the Israelites hemmed in by the walls of the city, and Moses is to be their shepherd.

Zampieri was considered to be a significant figure in the formulation of the "classical" style in Europe. A man of many skills, he was also an accomplished musician and a highly skilled architect. He held the belief that painting was "silent poetry and required a stylized expressive vocabulary to be properly understood and deciphered" (Source: "The Met" https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/domn/hd_domn.htm Essay by Keith Christiansen, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. September 2008).

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Answer: Quebec City

In 1845, Québec City had two fires about a month apart. The result was the death of 23 people, and just under 18,000 were left homeless. The affected part of the city was rebuilt with wider streets and the use of more stone in construction. However, as the fire brigade was cut to save money, the city was still exposed to the threat of fire and was once again razed in 1866.

Legare was, essentially, a self-taught painter who was born in Québec City in 1795. A man who took an active interest in the workings of his community, he was hailed as Canada's first native-born landscape artist. His 1848 work "The Fire in the Saint-Jean Quarter" is a large painting that stunningly documents the latter fire, capturing the blaze at the peak of its devastation. He had initially completed this as a small work, but felt that lacked a depth of power and transferred it to a larger canvas. He would also produce some haunting works that displayed the skeletal aftermath of the smouldering ruins.

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Answer: False

Turner's paintings (there were two) chronicled the fire that razed the British Houses of Parliament on October 16, 1834. This event was the largest conflagration in London between 1666's Great Fire of London and World War II's Blitz. Turner (1775 - 1851) was said to have witnessed the event though from some of the architecture depicted in the paintings, Turner must have re-visited the site to finish his paintings.

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Answer: Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn is the only Dutch artist of these four and is the most well-known. Rembrandt created paintings, drawings, and etchings. The Battle of the Nile took place long after his death.

Thomas Luny was an English painter of seascape and maritime themed works. He trained under Francis Holman, another accomplished marine painter. Although unlikely to have been present at the Battle of the Nile, Luny's depiction is still noted for its realism. His relationship with the British East India Company probably played a role in this, as he traveled with their ships and gained realistic views of his subject.

George Arnald is another English painter who is probably best known for his painting of the Battle of the Nile even though it is his only known maritime work. At the time it was commissioned by the British Institution and now hangs in National Maritime Museum. Like Luny, it is highly doubtful he was present to witness the battle.

W. L. Wyllie was not yet born when the Battle of the Nile took place. He became a renowned English maritime painter and his works hang in the Tate, the Royal Academy, the Imperial War Museum, and the National Maritime Museum. His Battle of the Nile painted in 1899 hangs in the Tate.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.